Defending Champ Holds Off Siner In Photo Finish At DuQuoin

DUQUOIN, Ill. — Defending O’Reilly POWRi National Midget Series champion Brad Loyet picked up where he left off Saturday in the first O’Reilly POWRi race of 2008, leading all 30 laps in the first of three events in the DuQuoin Winter Series presented by Broken Bow Records.
Loyet led 19 other starters into turn one and led throughout, but narrowly held off a last-lap charge by Tim Siner, winning in a photo finish on the one-sixth-mile indoor dirt track.

ON TWO WHEELS: Brad Loyet does a wheelie during hot laps. Loyet went on to win the 30-lap feature, leading every lap and holidng off Tim Siner in a photo finish. (Kevin Horcher Photo)

Siner caught Loyet during the final four laps and tried desperately to perform a slide job on the 20-year-old, but came up .067 second short.
Loyet was unchallenged during the opening half of the race and distanced himself from Siner and Tracy Hines when on lap 11 he began lapping the tail of the field. While fighting for second, Siner and Hines snaked through the field in an attempt to catch Loyet.
The first of four caution periods occurred on lap 19 and three subsequent yellows prior to the checkered flag kept the battle up front close. Siner fought past more lapped traffic on lap 25 and pulled away from Hines and closer to Loyet.
Over the final four laps of the 30-lapper, Siner finally caught Loyet. However, he couldn’t complete a firm pass attempt. Hines came home third — only 1.081 seconds behind Loyet —and ahead of Brent Beauchamp and reigning POWRi Micro-Sprint champ Derek King.
In contrast, 74 micro-sprints fought for 22 feature starting positions, and Rob Johnson trumped the other 73 micro-sprint competitors in the first POWRi feature of the night. Johnson started up front and led all 25 laps to beat Tyler Robbins.
Johnson was never challenged in the caution-filled race (nine in total), beating Robbins by 0.758 second. Ryan Guyett, Andrew Elson and Nick Harris rounded out the 20-car starting field.
The finish:
Brad Loyet, Tim Siner, Tracy Hines, Brent Beauchamp, Derek King, Hud Cone, Tony Roney, Zach Daum, Danny Stratton, Russ Harper, Dave Camfield, Austin Brown, Dalton Cole, Jason Dull, Steven Arnold, Tyler Reddick, Josh Most, Garrett Hood, Bobby East, Nick Knepper.